Liquid crystals have found use in a variety of electro-optical and display device applications, in particular those which require compact, energy-efficient, voltage-controlled light valves such as watch and calculator displays. These devices are based upon the dielectric alignment effects in nematic, cholesteric and smectic phases of the liquid crystal compound in which, by virtue of dielectric anisotropy, the average molecular long axis of the compound takes up a preferred orientation in an applied electric field. Since the coupling to an applied electric field by this mechanism is rather weak, the resultant electro-optical response time may be too slow for many potential applications.
Liquid crystal displays have a number of unique characteristics, including low voltage and low power of operation, which makes them perhaps the most promising of the non-emissive electro-optical display candidates available with today's technology. However, slow response and insufficient nonlinearity can impose limitations for many potential applications. The requirement for speed may become especially important in proportion to the number of elements which have to be addressed in a device. This may result in increasingly impractical production costs for the potential use of such devices in flat-panel displays for use in video terminals, oscilloscopes, radar and television screens.
It has been shown by N. A. Clark and S. T. Lagerwall in Appl. Phys. Lett. 36:899 (1980) and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,924 that electro-optic effects with sub-microsecond switching speeds are achievable using the technology of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs). Some display structures prepared using FLC materials, in addition to the high speed (about 1,000 times faster than currently used twisted nematic devices) reported by these investigators, also exhibit bistable, threshold sensitive switching, making them potential candidates for light modulation devices including matrix addressed light valves containing a large number of elements for passive displays of graphic and pictorial information, as well as for optical processing applications. A recent review of the applications of FLC devices is given by Lagerwall, S. T. and Clarke, N. A. (1989) Ferroelectrics 94:3-62.
Smectic C liquid crystal phases composed of chiral, nonracemic molecules possess a spontaneous ferroelectric polarization, or macroscopic dipole moment, deriving from a dissymmetry in the orientation of molecular dipoles in the liquid crystal phases (Myer et al. (1975) J. Phys. (Les Ulis, Fr) 36:L-69). The ferroelectric polarization density is an intrinsic property of the material making up the phase and has a magnitude and sign for a given material under a given set of conditions. In ferroelectric liquid crystal display devices, like those of Clark and Lagerwall, appropriate application of an external electric field results in alignment of the molecules in the ferroelectric liquid crystal phase with the applied field. When the sign of the applied field is reversed, realignment or switching of the FLC molecules occurs. This switching can be employed for light modulation. Within a large range of electric field strengths, the switching speed (optical rise time) is inversely proportional to applied field strength and polarization or dipole density (P), and directly proportional to orientational viscosity. Fast switching speeds are then associated with FLC phases which possess high polarization density and low orientational viscosity.
A basic requirement for application of ferroelectric liquid crystals in such devices is the availability of chemically stable liquid crystal compounds or mixtures which exhibit ferroelectric phases (chiral smectic C) over a substantial temperature range about room temperature. In some cases, the ferroelectric liquid crystal compound itself will possess an enantiotropic or monotropic ferroelectric (chiral smectic C*) liquid crystal phase. Ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures possessing smectic C* phases with useful temperature ranges can also be obtained by admixture of chiral, nonracemic compounds, designated ferroelectric liquid crystal dopants into liquid crystal host material (which may or may not be composed of chiral molecules). Addition of the dopant can affect the ferroelectric polarization density and/or the viscosity of the C* phase and thereby affect the switching speed. Desirable FLC dopants are molecules which impart high ferroelectric polarization density to an FLC material without significantly increasing the orientational viscosity of the mixture. The components of FLC mixtures can also be adjusted to vary phase transition temperatures or to introduce desired LC phases.
Thermotropic liquid crystal molecules typically possess structures which combine a rigid core coupled with two relatively "floppy" tails (see Demus et al. (1974) Flussige Kristalle In Tabellen, VEB Deutscher Verlag fur Grundstoffindustrie, Lebzig for a compilation of the molecular structures of LC molecules). FLC materials have been prepared by the introduction of a stereocenter into one of the tails, thus introducing chirality. The first FLC compound to be characterized was DOBAMBC (Meyer et al., supra) which contains a 2-methylbutyl chiral tail. Pure DOBAMBC exhibits a smectic C* phase with a ferroelectric polarization of -3 nC/cm.sup.2.
There are a number of reports of compounds containing phenylbenzoate, biphenyl, phenylpyrimidine and related cores coupled to chiral tail units which possess monotropic smectic C* phases displaying fast switching speeds at room temperature, or which can be employed as FLC dopants to induce high polarization and fast switching speeds when combined in mixtures with FLC host materials.
The following are exemplary reports of such FLC compounds:
Walba et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,727 reports phenylbenzoates having non-racemic 2-alkoxy-1-propoxy tails. Eidman and Walba, U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,280 report chiral 1-cyanoalkoxy phenylbenzoates. Walba and Razavi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,650 report chirally asymmetric reverse ester phenylbenzoates having chiral 1-haloalkyl tail units.
Ohno et al. (1989) U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,587 refers to liquid crystal compounds exhibiting smectic C phases which contain a phenylpyridine core having the formula: ##STR2## where R.sup.1 is an alkyl group having seven to twelve carbon atoms and R.sup.2 is an alkyl group having five to twelve carbon atoms.
Japanese patent documents JP 63264573 and JP 62258361 refer to optically active 6-substituted-pyridine-3-carboxylic acid esters useful as ferroelectric smectic liquid crystals. Optically active 6-substituted-pyridine-3-carboxylic acid esters obtained from reaction of dodecyloxybenzoic acid, thionyl chloride and 6-hydroxynicotinic acid (S)-2-methylbutyl ester are specifically referred to. Japanese patent document JP 62175465 refers to ester compounds contained in liquid crystal compositions exhibiting nematic phases. 2-(trans-4-ethyl-cyclohexyl)- 5-nicotinic acid-3-fluoro-4-cyanophenyl ester is referred to specifically.
Walba et al. (1986) J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 108:7424-7425 and Walba and Vohra, U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,073 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,874 disclose ferroelectric (chiral) smectic liquid crystal compounds having an achiral core and chiral tail units derived from (2,3)-alkyloxiranemethanols which possess a high ferroelectric polarization density. The ferroelectric liquid crystal materials reported have the following general formulas: ##STR3## where R is an alkyl of one to seven carbon atoms and R' is an alkyl of five to twelve carbon atoms and Ar is phenylbenzoate or biphenyl.
Hemmerling et al. (1988) European Patent Application, Pub. No. 263437 refers to chiral aryl-2,3-epoxyalkylethers FLC compounds having phenylpyrimidine or phenylpyridazine cores of the formula: ##STR4## where A is a diazine-2,5,-diyl or diazine-3,6-diyl, R.sup.1 is a straight chain or branched alkyl group having 1-12 carbon atoms wherein one or two non-neighboring CH.sub.2 groups is replaced with an O or S atom, R.sup.2-4 are, independent of one another, H, a straight chain alkyl group having 1-12 carbon atoms or a branched alkyl group having 3-10 carbon atoms wherein R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are not all H. Compounds in which R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are both H having extrapolated polarization densities (P.sub.ext) in the range from 30-70 nC/cm.sub.2 are reported.
Walba and Razavi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,295, discloses chirally asymmetric phenyl and biphenylbenzoates having chiral 2,3-epoxy alkyl or 1-halo-2,3-epoxy alkyl tails which are useful as components of FLC materials. The compounds disclosed have the formula: ##STR5## where R' is alkyl alkoxyl having three to fifteen carbon atoms, R is an alkyl group having three to fifteen carbon atoms, n=1 or 2, and Y is a halogen or hydrogen. It is also disclosed, therein, that 1-haloepoxides of formula A can impart higher polarization densities and higher switching speeds in FLC mixtures than their diastereomers of formula B. It is suggested that the difference in properties of A and B is due to the relative alignment of the epoxide and halogen bond dipoles in the isomer. ##STR6##
Furukawa K. et al. (1988) Ferroelectrics 85:451-459 refers to chiral smectic C compounds having an ester group in the core and an optically active tail group, either alkoxy or alkoxy carbonyl, with an electronegative substituent, either a halogen or cyano group, ortho to the chiral tail, for example: ##STR7## where X=H, Halogen or CN.
While a number of useful ferroelectric liquid crystal materials (both pure compounds and mixtures) have been reported, there is a growing need for FLC materials with varying properties of temperature range, tilt angle and switching speed for use in varied applications. Further, there is a need for FLC dopants with varying mixing properties (which are dependent, at least in part, on chemical composition) for use in the preparation of FLC mixtures. FLC dopants which impart high polarization density to, and retain low viscosity in, such mixtures are of particular interest.